For a year and a half, Jacob Ylitalo’s mom said he refused to go to class.
Next week, he’ll graduate from Concord High School. Ylitalo, now 19, is one of seven students who completed the Second Start alternative high school program this year. As he and his classmates laughed and posed for photos during a ceremony Friday night, his mother remembered the change the program made in his life.
“He did a complete 180,” Sylvia Petro of Manchester said. “He had to be on his death bed to not go to school.”
While the graduates will officially don caps and gowns next week – six at Concord High School, one at Merrimack Valley High School – Friday was an evening to recognize their unique achievement.
“For many of them, graduating isn’t something they thought was possible,” lead teacher Isaac Sargent said.
Many of those students struggled in large classrooms, where they couldn’t find the individual attention they needed. But they earned credits for their diplomas in a smaller environment at Second Start, with three teachers for 15 students.
“Sometimes, in a big class, 29 kids in a class, it’s hard to raise your hand,” Director Ted Lambrukos said. “It’s a more personal approach. We are all about making kids feel like they are part of something, where sometimes in the bigger schools, they feel like they’re just a number.”
The program operates out of a converted fire station on North State Street. Photos of past classes smiling proudly hang on the walls by the front entrance. A ceiling panel in the main classroom upstairs is painted with a quote from Albert Einstein: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Ylitalo’s honor roll certificate hangs on a bulletin board.
“I’ve always been a shy person,” he explained. “Now, I’ll come in and say hi to everyone.”
He plans to enroll in community college and eventually earn his degree. His mom said he has been talking about working in a program like Second Start, helping kids who struggled in school. Ylitalo recalled a project he completed during his senior year, an essay of journal entries from the perspective of a scientist on the Manhattan Project during World War II.
“He actually made politics and voting interesting to a lot of us,” Ylitalo said of his history teacher. “This year, I’ve been pushing myself.”
At Friday’s ceremony, Lambrukos congratulated all seven students for pushing themselves. He gave a speech about each individual, congratulating one girl on getting a job and telling another he will miss “check-in meetings.”
These speeches are a tradition for Lambrukos, but this year, he will leave Second Start as well as his family moves out of state. Earlier in the week, the school honored him with a spaghetti farewell dinner. At school the next day, he praised Tyler Wheeler, the student who made the pasta sauce.
“Last night, it was one of the best days of my life,” Lambrukos told the class.
Wheeler, 19, has been in the program for three years. Now that he has graduated, he thinks he might want to be an electrician.
“It’s pretty tight knit,” he said of Second Start. “Everyone can see when you’re having a bad day and when you’re not having a bad day.”
Like the other students, Stephen Radzik, 19, gave teachers long hugs when he accepted his certificate. He’s not sure what he wants to do next, Radzik said, but he’s excited to leave high school behind.
“School,” he clarified. “Not Second Start.”
“Second Start is definitely the school you wish you could spend the rest of your life in.”
(Megan Doyle can be reached at 369-3321, mdoyle@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @megan_e_doyle.)